Woman running in a forest

Doctoral project: Running to cope – an explorative study about the link between recreational running practices and perceived stress in women

The project addresses the link between perceived stress and recreational running, and the role running plays as a coping mechanism in a female population.

Project information

Doctoral student
Lone Omholt Lossius
Supervisor
Jesper Andreasson
Assistant supervisors
Professor Jo Røislien, University of Stavanger
Financier
Linnaeus university
Timetable
1 March 2024 – 1 October 2027
Subject
Sport science (Department of Sport Science, Faculty of Social Sciences)

More about the project

The growing interest in recreational running, alongside reports of moderate to high levels of perceived stress in the general population, especially in young adult women, issues a need to explore how recreational running practices play a part in coping with perceived stress for women: How do women comprehend their running practice in the attempt to cope with stress, and what factors might impact the relationship between running and stress?

Perceived stress has been defined as “feelings and thoughts that an individual has about how much stress they are under at any given point in time or during a time period”. High levels of perceived stress might be connected to work-related or academic factors, or to cultural, social, or relational aspects of one’s life. How “life-stress” is handled is believed to play a part in how stress is perceived, and exercise has been conceptualized as an effective and easily accessible coping mechanism. Thus, the purpose of this doctoral project is to explore the interrelatedness between exercise and coping with perceived stress. More specifically, it aims to explore experiences and beliefs about running practices in the context of perceived stress, and to investigate the prevalence of levels of perceived stress and compulsive running in the population of women who practice recreational running.